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Republicans controlling the Senate moved Tuesday to try to reverse a new National Labor Relations Board rule that would shorten the time between a union's request for representation and the vote on whether to certify a union. But the White House promised to veto the measure just before the Senate's 53-45 party-line vote. Senate Republicans are employing a little-used process that allows Congress to pass a bill to try to reverse agency regulations without the threat of a Democratic filibuster. A final vote is likely on Wednesday. But the promised veto by President Barack Obama would kill the effort since it takes a two-thirds vote by both the House and Senate to override him. ...

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Republicans controlling the Senate moved Tuesday to try to reverse a new National Labor Relations Board rule that would shorten the time between a union's request for representation and the vote on whether to certify a union. But the White House...

Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland announced she will not seek a 6th term in the U.S. Senate.
Mikulski is the longest serving woman in the history of Congress and a tough, no-nonsense lawmaker who rose to the leadership of the powerful...

Relying on Republicans and going against the grain of his own party for his legislative successes has not been much of a go-to play in President Barack Obama's game plan. Then there's international trade. On Thursday, Obama stepped up his campaign for...

The White House is threating to veto a Republican bill to fix the widely criticized No Child Left Behind law that is set for debate in the House on Wednesday, calling it "a significant step backwards." Republicans say the bill would restore...

Everyone knows that Congress does very, very little. The Washington Post crunched the numbers last year and found that, mathematically,"no Congress in 40 years has been paid more to pass less legislation." It's also a fact that Congress is...

See, now this is just the thing David Axelrod was trying to prevent when his publicist required confidentiality agreements from reporters getting advance copies of his book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics." Just days before the...

WASHINGTON U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Lamar Alexander earlier this month announced a symbolic breakthrough in the decadelong ideological wrangling over how to rewrite the nation's chief education law. Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who...

WASHINGTON A new U.S. rule that would allow quicker elections in union organizing efforts would make it harder for small businesses to oppose them, a business trade group's lawyer said during a Wednesday Senate hearing. Current union election...

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats would like to get rid of the sequester. Many Republicans want more money for defense. That would seem to offer a potential formula for a budget agreement. But substantial hurdles stand in...

A plan by three Republican lawmakers for replacing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would leave Americans with less coverage and higher costs than the landmark law they want to repeal, Democrats said Thursday. "It effectively raises...

WASHINGTON As a former preschool teacher, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray is none too pleased with her state's performance when it comes to educating 4-year-olds. With only 8 percent of them enrolled, Washington state ranked 32nd in preschool access,...

The federal mandate to test U.S. school kids annually was at the center of a Senate panel's work on Wednesday to fix the long outdated No Child Left Behind education law.
The President George W. Bush-era education law dictates that states test students...

Sixteen female senators have sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell requesting that the NFL adopt a zero-tolerance policy against domestic violence.
Goodell recently instituted a policy with a six-game suspension for first-time domestic violence...

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans will revive Rep. Paul Ryan's lightning-rod proposals to slash the federal safety net, beef up military spending and reduce taxes for the wealthy in a budget unveiled Tuesday -- an election-year calling card that Democrats...

A scathing report finding a systemic problem at Veterans Affairs medical facilities nationwide, including manipulation of records to mask long waits for appointments, fueled new calls Wednesday for VA chief Eric K. Shinseki's resignation.
As the number...

WASHINGTON — In an uncharacteristically forceful tone, House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday lambasted the conservative advocacy groups that helped bring his party to power, saying their opposition to a bipartisan budget proposal amounted to an...

WASHINGTON — That Congress could soon pass a budget agreement after months of relentless partisan showdowns is thanks in large part to a mom in tennis shoes.
Sen. Patty Murray presented herself in that ordinary way when she first ran as a Democrat to...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former Republican vice presidential nominee, launched an attack Monday on the nation's poverty programs, provoking an election-year confrontation with the White House amid a growing focus on income inequality....

The Senate roundly rejected the House GOP budget on Wednesday, with five Republicans joining most Democrats in shooting down the proposal to dramatically alter Medicare that has rattled the Republican Party. The 40-57 vote essentially ends the...

Pity the poor "super committee." Congress' special task force on the deficit already had a mission that looked nearly impossible: producing a plan to reduce the federal government's fiscal gap by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. And then the job got...